The sun is high. The blooms have blossomed. And yet, nature isn’t sprinting—it’s sustaining.
In the sacred rhythm of the seasons, summer isn’t about burnout. It’s about deepening.
So why are we still running on fumes?
Why does rest feel like failure?
Why does pausing feel like giving up?
Because supremacy culture taught us to fear stillness. Because grind culture made exhaustion a badge of honor. But the truth is: rest is a reclamation. Rest is a refusal. Rest is a revolutionary act of faith.
1. Rest Interrupts the Cycle of Performance
Example: You’ve met every deadline. You’ve shown up at every meeting, camera on. And still, you feel like you’re not doing enough. That’s not the truth. That’s trauma.
Rest exposes the lie of “never enough” by asserting: you are enough, even when you do nothing at all.
Reflection Prompt:Where did I learn that worth must be earned through suffering?What would I lose (or gain) if I stopped performing?
2. Rest Is a Body-Based Boundary
Rest is more than sleep. It’s a boundary. A full-bodied “no more” to the systems that extract and deplete.
Example: During the live, we talked about rest as spiritual, not just physical. You don’t need to collapse to justify a nap. You don’t need to earn your ease.
Reframe: Rest isn’t earned. It’s a right.And when you claim that right, you teach your nervous system safety, not survival.
Reflection Prompt:What happens in my body when I pause?Does it tense? Does it relax? What is that telling me?
3. Rest Models a New Way Forward
You can’t invite others into liberation if your life is still a cage. Rest is how we practice new paradigms.
Example: Many of us are the first in our families to name burnout, to opt out of hustle, to stop proving our value through pain. That is legacy work. That is planting seeds of expansion.
Reframe: Every time you rest, you plant the possibility of something better for yourself and those who come after.
Reflection Prompt:What story am I telling future generations with how I treat my body, time, and peace?
Featured Clip: The Sacred Pause
In this segment, we returned to the truth that even in the biblical story, Jesus paused. Jesus wept. Jesus rested. Jesus asked why he was being forsaken.
If the divine took time to grieve, to rest, to question, how dare we think we can skip that sacred pause?
This is your invitation to make rest a ritual.
Practice Your Praxis: Self, Home, Work
SELF — Embody Sacred Stillness
* Block 15 minutes a day to sit with nothing. No phone. No goals. Just presence.
* Ask: What can I say no to, and what can I say yes to? What does rest want to look like in my body today?
HOME — Model Rest for Your Circle
* Create a “pause plan” with your family or housemates. Rest should not be reactive. Make it rhythmic.
* E.g., Sunday mornings = no housework, Wednesday evenings = tech-free unwind time.
WORK — Normalize Rest in Your Culture
* Add a rest ethic to your workplace values.
* Lead by example: decline meetings during lunch, speak about your boundaries, offer pause before push.
Invitation to Subscribe
To my subscribers, thank you. This isn’t productivity porn dressed in self-care. This is sacred, systemic, and somatic work.
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Final Reflection: You Don’t Have to Burn to Be Bright
Rest isn’t retreat. It’s re-rooting.
We are not here to die proving our worth. We are here to live in it.
Let your rest be a sermon. Let your pause be a protest. Let your stillness speak louder than your striving ever could.
With you in the sacred stillness,—Desireé B. StephensFounder, Make Shi(f)t HappenHost, Let’s Have the Conversation
Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.
